Make Your BLT 10x Better With A Simple Bacon Grease Hack

A classic BLT is an easy way to enjoy a quick yet delicious lunch or dinner. While it's usually made with bacon, lettuce, and tomato on toast or soft bread (you decide), you can get creative with plenty of other flavor boosts like garlic mayo or smashed avocado. But to build an even richer flavor on this sandwich, toast the bread in your leftover bacon grease.

For ease, you can pop the bread in the toaster to let it crisp, but if you have a little extra time — and need to cook that bacon, anyway — reserve some grease in the pan for toasting the bread. Other alternatives include toasting it with butter or mayonnaise, but bacon grease adds a different layer of rich, salty flavor. If you're using standard white bread, don't oversaturate it; you only need a teaspoon or two of grease for two large bread slices. However, for a thicker or denser bread like ciabatta, you could use a little extra. If there's an abundance of grease in the pan, don't make the mistake of tossing it out — remove and save it for later.

If you've cooked an entire package of bacon in a big pan, then there's going to be a lot of leftover grease. You don't need it all for a BLT, but you shouldn't throw it away. It can be used to cook all kinds of foods, from frying an egg to adding flavor to burger patties. However, you need to reserve and store bacon grease properly to prevent it from going bad.

For starters, never work with bacon grease while it's still hot. You don't want it to coagulate in the pan, but at least let it cool until it's safe to handle. Once it's cool, strain it through a fine mesh strainer, which will capture and remove any bacon bits; you don't want the bacon bits getting into the grease, or the grease will go bad sooner. You can repeat this step more than once if needed. For the purest flavor, store it in a glass or metal container rather than plastic, which can transfer food odors. Seal it tightly and keep it in the refrigerator. As long as it's properly strained and stored, leftover bacon grease should last up to six months in the fridge. You can also freeze it for up to a year.